Need better branding

I noticed this article describing aÂ product called ‘Flyback’ on Ubuntu, advertised as beingÂ similar to Apple’s Time Machine.Â Â It creates a backup system via rsync and hardlinks.Â Oddly enough, this has already been done on DragonFly, and could work on any BSD.Â Perhaps we need to name more basic assemblies of system features with cool names.Â (via)

3 Replies to “Need better branding”

People like “Time Machine”, the way Apple designed it. Yes, the functionality has been around in various forms for a long time, but the ease of use isn’t there. I just pushed my father from decades of Windows usage to an iMac/Leopard a couple of weeks ago, and Time Machine was a big part of my sell. Truth be told, I want one just like it on my BSD, Solaris, and Windows systems. So I also saw FlyBack and another Linux called Time Vault. So far they fall short and I think they are Linux-only anyway.

Count me with the folks that know backups are vital and just don’t do it because it’s too much effort. If Dragonfly could implement Time Machine using the new HAMMER filesystem, that would be a real feather in the cap. I understand that Leopard has low-level hooks for Time Machine which is why Flyback and Time Vault will never work as well, they have to rely on the rsync method of scanning everything. I think Time Machine is helping Mac sales a lot, and that identical (and equally easy to use) functionality should migrate to all major OS. It appears that Dragonfly could get a jump on the rest if HAMMER already or could easily support it.